A Letter From the Producer Live XV - Recap - #E3

The fifteenth live letter from FINAL FANTASY XIV Produce & Director, Naoki Yoshida, took place at E3 yesterday. The broadcast was entirely in Japanese, so we've had to wait a day to get the official translations. Fear not though, for this letter contained a lot of juicy details about the upcoming Patch 2.3: Defenders of Eorzea.

First and foremost, the patch will be landing on July 8th 2014, with a live broadcast discussing the patch notes on July 7th 2014! The small delay, which has thrown off the 3 month cadence of content delivery, was due to the delay with Patch 2.28. This also means that players looking forward to rolling a Rogue and Ninja, we can guestimate that patch 2.4 will probably land sometime around October/November this year.

Unfortunately there's no Patch 2.3 trailer as of yet, due to it still being in production. So keep your eyes peeled for that one!

Yoshi-P treated us to a look at 3 of the main features coming in Patch 2.3: the Ramuh primal battle, the next wing of the Crystal Tower and the PvP Frontlines.

RamuhRamuh's battle will take place in the Black Shroud, on what looks like a large, ruined, tree trunk. Part of the platform is drenched in water, with a grass knoll in the middle. Not much was discussed about the fight itself, but we suspect that the water will play a key roll in the fight - perhaps having to go in and out of it at certain intervals to avoid lightning damage and other mechanics. Like all the other primals, Ramuh will also drop crafting materials that can be used to craft unique themed furniture for houses. In this case, a throne and a cool outdoor lightning rod.


Crystal TowerIn Patch 2.1, players cleared out the Labyrinth of the Ancients to allow unburdened passage to the foot of the Crystal Tower. Patch 2.3 sees players begin their ascent to the top of the tower, starting with the Syrcus Tower. FINAL FANTASY III players may recognise the name, as it's the official name the Crystal Tower was given in FFIII.

The climb up the tower looks like it will be gorgeous, with blue crystals and gold engravings everywhere, along with arenas featuring jumping puzzles. Near the top of the tower, players will enter an opera house type arena where they will face the final boss of this wing. No details were given regarding the bosses in Syrcus Tower, as Yoshi-P wanted it to remain as spoiler free as possible. Right now the plan is for item level 100 armor pieces to drop from bosses, along with a 30% chance of acquiring Unidentified Allagan Tomestones and Sands and Oils of Time. The Sands and Oils can be used to upgrade the Weathered gear currently purchased with Allagan Tomestones of Soldiery, from item level 100 up to item level 110 whereas the Unidentified Allagan Tomestone can be used to purchase item level 100 weapons. Yoshi-P did stress that the Tomestones and Sands/Oils won't be available at the start, and will be added in the weeks following the launch of Patch 2.3.

The Syrcus Tower will use the same loot system as Labyrinth of the Ancients, players can win one item per week using either a Need or Greed roll. It's unconfirmed whether the Unidentified Allagan Tomestones and Sands/Oils of Times will count as the one loot per week, but it's very likely!

PvP FrontlinesThe long awaited PvP Frontlines was finally shown off. At present, the only PvP available in FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, is a 4v4 team deathmatch mode. Frontlines, however, changes this. Frontlines is intended to be a 24v24v24 (so 72 players total) battleground, in which players fight in 30 minutes to gain control of strategic locations and other objectives on the map. The Duty Finder will also allow for 8v8v8 and 16v16v16 configurations, which will update dynamically depending on the number of players queueing for Frontlines. Item and stat level will also be synced to try and alleviate gear imbalance. Securing locations or completing objectives will contribute to your team score, the first team that reaches 1000 points (or the team that has the most points at the end of the 30 minutes) wins!

The map itself is actually the Plains of Carteneau, which players of the original FINAL FANTASY XIV will know as the area where the vents of the End Of An Era cinematic took place 5 years ago. Ruins of the fallen mechanical moon, Dalamud, can be found all over the map. Players can visit their Grand Company's outpost on the map to change their job at anytime during the battle. So, if your team is in dire need of a healer - you can head back to your outpost and switch to White Mage (provided you've got a White Mage at level 50) and get back into the fray.

Yoshi-P said that "Frontline is content that a lot of people will enjoy. It was made with the idea of being extremely easy to get into PvP content and you should be able to have fun easily." Participating in Frontlines will award players with Wolf Marks (the PvP currency) as well as Allagan Tomestones of Soldiery, you may even be able to earn a cool looking horse!



Other 2.3 Things
Patch 2.3 also features a host of other things for players to do:

• The continuation of the Main Scenario - Yoshi-P did stress that there would not be a lot of voice acting this time around, as the scenario in Patch 2.4 contains the "largest amount of voice acting we've done for a single patch."
• The Hildibrand storyline will continue - although Gilgamesh will not feature in it this time.
• A new side-story quest will start from the Delivery Moogles
• Chocobo Raising - Chocobo pens can be constructed in the Garden of Free Company Houses. The pens can be used to level up Chocobos, even beyond the current cap of Rank 10. This will also allow players to regrow their Chocobos feathers to be a different colour, colour is purely aesthetic though, it doesn't affect anything about the Chocobo.
• The Ixali beast tribe quests will be added later on, in Patch 2.38, and follow a different structure to the current beastman dailies.
• Rooms can be purchased within Free Company houses. The rooms will be slightly bigger than a small Free Company house, but will have no basement or garden. Rooms are expected to cost around 300,000 gil (subject to change, the numbers are still being crunched)

Free Login Weekend for 2.3
Some time after the release of Patch 2.3, another Free Login weekend will be held to allow returning players a chance to check out the game for free. Further details to come at a later date.

On a related note, Yoshi-P stressed that there are no plans for FINAL FANTASY XIV to go Free-to-Play, but they are looking into adding some sort of trial version to allow potential new players the chance to check out the game, without the need to pay.



Eorzea Collection Magazine
One of the more popular things that SQUARE ENIX release alongside major patches, is the Eorzea Collection videos. These videos often showcase all the new clothing available in the patch. As there's a lot of furnitue and equipment in the game now, it seems that SQUARE ENIX's merchandising department have seen fit to put together a catalogue containing all the items and furniture presently in the game, for ease of reference.

It's very unlikely that this will get released outside of Japan, though!


F.A.T.E. and FanfestsThe next Full Active Time Event will be held in Sendai on 21st July 2014. It's unconfirmed whether or not there will be a LIVE Letter from this F.A.T.E. There was also something about the upcoming Fan Festivals... but well, that needs it's own article.

What are you looking forward too in Patch 2.3?